by tintin on Sat Jun 19, 2004 1:07 pm
I was wondering if anyone could help me with this (no, not my own!). Basically I met someone last night who believed that there were "people" in certain places, e.g. in a particular room, but not in another one, and would talk to them, telling them to either go away or get angry with them, asking them what they were doing there.
He could sometimes get a bit insistent that they were there, and made me at one point go into a room to talk to this person, because he was afraid of them. In another instance, though, it was possible to persuade him that one of the "people" was actually in another room, but he wasn't convinced. Another time he could "see" them through the letterbox, and shouted at them to go away.
As a person, he seemed to have reasonably low self esteem and was under a great deal of pressure to conform to his father's wishes (career-wise, and to continue the success of his business). Many people were "friends" with him because of his money rather than for who he was. He seemed to have a real need of affection and support i.e. this was perhaps not being reciprocated or provided by his family.
It's certainly not Multiple Personality Disorder, although he did have some mood swings, often unpredictable. His alcohol consumption is very high - but would this induce such a thing? He certainly had depression and was bullied, yet was able to fight back as he was reasonably well-built.
Does anyone have any suggestions?
Edit - add: He was dyslexic as well.